Netherlands: Difference between revisions

|currency=Gulden

|Population=25,313,981}}

 

In English, the country is also known as Holland. The term specifically refers to the European part of the ''Kingdom of the Netherlands'' on the lowlands. The adjectival form "Hollandic" refers to ideas and things related to European Netherlands, as opposed to Dutch, which could refer to the entire kingdom and its three constituent countries as a whole. ''Hollandic'' is also the name of the standard dialect of Dutch, setting it apart from other dialects like Afrikaans-Dutch and Amerikaens-Dutch (until it was considered a separate language in 1910).

== History ==

 

Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine (''Rijn''), the Meuse (''Maas'') and the Scheldt (''Schelde''), as well as their tributaries. These three rivers create the largest river delta in the country which also creates the whole south-western geographic region of the Netherlands, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. The European Netherlands is divided into north and south by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. In the past, these rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and have historically created a cultural divide, this is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" (''de Grote Rivieren''). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Ijssel kanaal which leads into the north sea again, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).

 

The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of '''Johan Rudolph Thorbecke''' became a parliamentary democracy in 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterized by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole. On top of that, the Netherlands itself is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands which is often described as a unique state.

 

== Economy ==

{{Nations of the World}}